Darlington New Nuclear Power Plant Project Joint Review Panel Announces Public Hearing Details

OTTAWA, Jan. 25 /CNW/ - The Joint Review Panel for the Darlington New Nuclear Power Plant project today announced further details for the public hearing scheduled to begin on March 21, 2011 in the Municipality of Clarington, Ontario and expected to continue over approximately 3 weeks.

The public hearing will give any person with an interest in the project the opportunity to hear about the project and its potential environmental effects, and to provide their views to the Joint Review Panel. The hearing will also allow the proponent, Ontario Power Generation, to present an overview of the project and to offer clarifying information and additional technical information as required.

The hearing will be held at:

Hope Fellowship Church
1685 Bloor Street
Courtice, ON  L1E 2N1

The first hearing session will begin at 1:30 pm on Monday, March 21. The Panel will address procedural matters at its first session. Anyone wishing to raise a procedural matter shall provide a written submission to the Panel by March 14, 2011.

The second hearing session will start at 7:00 pm on Monday, March 21 with opening remarks from the Panel Chair followed by a presentation by Ontario Power Generation.

On subsequent days of the public hearing, the Panel intends to hold two hearing sessions per day - either a morning and an afternoon session or an afternoon and an evening session. A schedule of presenters along with session start times will be available before the start of the hearing. 

Topics that will be addressed over the course of the hearing include, but are not limited to: emissions, human health, land use, aquatic biota and habitat, and the management of conventional and nuclear waste.

Participants should note that the deadline for written submissions from registered intervenors has been extended by one week. Written submissions will now be accepted by the Panel until February 21, 2011.

Key dates

Activities	Deadline
All Participants - registration	January 13, 2011
Government and Proponent - written submissions	January 31, 2011
Intervenors - written submissions	February 21 2011
Government, Proponent and Intervenors - slide presentations (if desired)	March 9, 2011
Submissions on procedural / preliminary matters (if desired)	March 14, 2011
Public hearing begins	March 21, 2011

Written transcripts and audio recordings of the proceedings, as well as all hearing submissions, will be available on the online registry. Simultaneous translation of oral proceedings will be available in French and English.

Public Hearing Procedures that describe how the sessions will unfold are available on the Canadian Environmental Assessment Registry at www.ceaa-acee.gc.ca, reference number 07-05-29525, and on the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission's Web site at www.nuclearsafety.gc.ca .

The project is a proposal by Ontario Power Generation for the site preparation, construction, operation, decommissioning and abandonment of up to four new nuclear reactors at its existing Darlington Nuclear site located near Oshawa along the north shore of Lake Ontario, in the Municipality of Clarington. The project is expected to generate up to 4800 megawatts of electricity for delivery to the Ontario grid.

For further information:

For more information, media may contact:
Lucille Jamault Manager, Communications
Darlington New Nuclear Power Plant Project Joint Review Panel
Tel.: [phone]